omegadeal

I was a UA 1K for a number of years and just switched to US/AA at the beginning of this year, and quickly made CP on US through the trial preferred.

Here are the pros/cons of US/AA over UA

Pros:

• Upgrades seem to be slightly better on US than they were on UA for me. This may be due to the fact that UA has a Global Services tier above their standard 100k tier which is invite only and gets upgrade priority
• One of the reasons I left was the requirement to purchase a higher fare class when using GPUs even when the upgrade wasn't available (aka the upgrade lottery). With that being said, UA gave 6 GPUs per year while US only gives two
• Oneworld has the only direct flight to Europe from PHX (PHX->LHR on BA). I'll end up using this one a good bit

Cons:

• I'll also miss the ability to move the flight forward or backward 24 hours using only the mobile app. There are many times I would fly home the night prior than originally scheduled because I was able to get my work done earlier.
• UA award redemption seemed to be much better for international premium cabins, but I must admit that I am new to US/AA. It looks like there are very few saver awards on US.
• The UA website seemed to have more functionality. There were very few things I couldn't do on the website, and rarely had to call in. On US it seems like they want you to actually call in (i.e. no way to check upgrade availability, no waitlist (i.e. just keep calling back)

GadgetFreak

Just to note, currently AA gives top tier flyers 8 systemwide upgrades rather than the 2 on US.

Segments

I'd look carefully at your flight patterns. US uses Dash 8's on quite a few routes. E145 and CRJ are also common.

LaserSailor

You were good until the last line then went kettle.

I fly direct route, fastest to client

UA about50%
DL to ATL MSP DTW
US/AA to PHL CLT DCA

Mostly UA overseas.

I've found all three get me where I need to be on time 98%+

Flew AA CDG(paid first) for first time in ages last week and found it pretty much like UA.

chicaloca453

I'm a UA flyer on the fence about leaving so I'll chime in from my perspective.

The things keeping me with UA are the following (and in order or importance to me)

1. Same Day Change Policy is the best in the business for gold and up. You can change for free for flights 24 hours before your flight or within 24 hours of the time you're requesting it if you're inside the 24 hour window. So say you have a 9 a.m. flight on 4/30. On 4/29 at 9 a.m. you can make a change to ay flight leaving before your 9 a.m flight. At 9 p.m. on 4/29 you can change it to any flight up until 9 p.m. on 4/30. It does not have to be the same day of the flight which is what makes me want to stick around. I've cut short and extended trips so many times thanks to this. I've also managed so SDC on to more desirable routings or lesser connection times with no fee whatsoever. Only caveat is the fare class you booked has to be open on the flight you want to change to. UA typically opens up all fare buckets near the flight time so I rarely have an issue. Since you can have unlimited changes, you can keep changing up until you get what you want. IMO this is be best benefit of the airline program period.
2. Star Alliance Network is wonderful.
3. No YQ on Award Tickets. When you try to redeem your first J award on BA you'll understand the value of this.
4. Miles for me have been easier to use.
5. Since I do travel to Canada, UA is a better fit for me with the AC partnership.
6. Fear of the unknown. Doug Parker is the devil I don't know and Jeff Smisek is the devil I do. I don't like the one I know, but I'm afraid that the US mentality will take over AA the same way the CO mentality has taken over UA. What I do know about US is miles are very hard to redeem, especially at the low saver rate. They have no one way trips (which I value). We've already seen one major devaluation and elimination of some excellent benefits of the AA program (most notably award stopovers in the international gateway). If he goes all Smisek on AA, then we really won't be left with much of a choice. I have 150K US miles thanks to Grand Slam, and I have had a hard time using them every time I've checked. That scares me.

Now those benefits do not come without costs:

1. Upgrades are becoming harder and harder.
2. Service is very inconsistent.
3. The CO mentality of management is not very customer friendly.

I did try AA as an EXP the first year they did the match, and I still found myself happier on UA because even EXP has to pay $75 for a same day flight change unless you want to stand by (which is free). But if you stand by, you pretty much lose any chance of an upgrade because upgrades tend to process before stand by. And you must do it on the day of your scheduled travel (not day before or day after like UA allows).

One thing that appeals to me about AA is the Choice Plus offerings. I don't exacly get free same day changes, but if I pay the initial fee, then I can change the flight with no change fee and will pay only additional fare if there is any. I'm not sure how AA is about opening up fare buckets close end though. Perhaps someone can elaborate.

Every year I find myself on the fence about which program would be best for me. I've considered doing US Trial Preferred to get status with OW to try things out. Making CP would not be too difficult in the 90 day challenge, and if I start it at the right time, I will keep it all next year as well.

CDKing

Which will become 4 or less under Parker Ive been through enough mergers HP/US, DL/NW & UA/CO. Not sure I could handle another one so soon

I don't know why one would want to switch right now when there is so much uncertainty.

GadgetFreak

That remains to be seen. I agree that in general mergers are anti-customer, and for that matter anti-employee. I certainly take this a year at a time. When the US merger occurred I was pretty close to leaving AA because of it. I had actually been both a 1K on UA and a US1 on US for years and had left US for AA about 2005 because I could no longer stand flying on US. So I was pretty despondent about the merger. But I am just waiting it out. I think it will be a year or more before we know much, and as I said, I will take it year by year.

austin_res

I'm on the fence on staying with AA or switching to UA - I'll decide on 3/1/2015 when my PLT status expires. I don't know where AA is headed but so far it seems as if Parker is trying to beat Smisek in the race to the bottom. UA/CO had their merger struggles and for the most part are now past them, while US/AA will soon be going thru their merger challenges. I don't expect US/AA integration process to be any smoother than UA/CO.

UA pros:
* Star Alliance network gives access to many regions in the world
* Website and app have many nice features (ie where is this plane coming from, inflight amenities, can make changes and upgrades online)
* Smisek gives ample notice about changes
* No extra surcharges on award tickets

AA pros:
* 100% mainline out of AUS
* First and business class are amazing
* 500-mile upgrade stickers which means better upgrade odds as not all Gold/Plat request upgrades on flights
* Power plugs on most planes

flyingmusicianlax

Many more UA cons to add, IMO:

A LOT more RJ flying
Nickel and diming elites at every turn
"Dark" planes - no power, WiFi, IFE
Horrible meal service in F: hope you like your white roll with your bready calzone
Un-merged pilot groups means if you take a CO flight out of IAD and your plane breaks or your flight crew doesn't show, enjoy waiting around for four plus hours while they fly in a new plane/crew from IAH
Getting beat out for upgrades with every Gold that paid more than you, plus every Plat, 1K and GS on every flight

I'm not sure where you're getting that AA is trying to race UA to the bottom... sure, we've lost a few things in the past few months - most substantially being good value AAnytime Awards - but AA still offers a vastly superior FF program and flight experience.

phillychuck

I'm dipping my toe in AA. Have been UA Gold/Platinum (and last year 1K) for some years. However based in PHL, the *A options are diminishing -- and I really am not enthused about doing travel out of EWR (I've got a trip to Italy in June thru EWR as a last valiant attempt on *A). Hopefully I can grin and bear kettle class for the balance of 2014 till I get at least first level status on AA (I've got a business class trip to DEL via LHR on BA in July that should help quite a bit).

Probably will say good bye to about 700K lifetime miles and need to really burn up a goodly number of my UA miles.

GadgetFreak

Call AA about a status match or challenge. It varies with time but they matched me at Platinum (second level) when I was a 1K. If you can get that BA trip included in a challenge you will get status more quickly.

phillychuck

Good idea - but I just called and checked. They will only status match from UA 1K

SOBE ER DOC

Not sure how refusing to fly an airline I find to be god-awful qualifies me as kettle. I do not make my decisions on cost. I make my decisions on service. I stopped flying UA when their senior management overtly stated that they didn't really give a rat's a@@ about retaining elites and eroded their service to the point that they were totally unreliable. A kettle would tolerate this if the price is right. I will not.

I have had lousy after lousy experience on UA that are too numerous to recount here. My experience with AA has typically met my expectations. US is not there yet and hopefully Parker will not wreck the new AA.

If you stroll over the the UA board you'll see just how unhappy the people who are sticking around are. Saying I will not fly them again under any circumstances hardly makes me a kettle.

chicaloca453

OP can correct me if I'm wrong but I think hhe was saying it was kettle to say you'd rather drive. I tend to agree somewhat. If UA is your only option and you'd choose to drive say 10 hours, that's pretty kettle.

An example in my life. I hate flying Delta. But one weekend I needed to be in Indianapolis. UA and AA wanted $450. Delta wanted $120. Well I didn't like it, but I flew Delta. It didn't kill me. It just made me appreciate the other airlines more.

SOBE ER DOC

Honestly, if UA wanted $120 and AA wanted $450 I would pay the $450 and fly AA. Cost is not the only consideration I make when planning travel. I also look at the convenience factor and how the airline handles customer service, wx and mx delays and the like. My experience with UA has been so lousy in these circumstances that I no longer trust them to get me from point A to point B in a manner that meets with my expectations.

If that makes me kettle, then fine, I'm kettle. I've never been one to be very concerned about what others think about my decisions...I'm the one who has to live with them.